I’ve spent the last week trying to post my first gig, and I must say it has been a confusing and frustrating experience. It was kicked back several times after “review” for modifications. After the first time, I thought the reviewer didn’t quite understand what the gig was, and after the last one I was sure of it.

The gig was to create an audio CD of a podcast for the podcaster to hand out as samples when promoting in person. I thought the title and description were very clear. I originally submitted it in the Music and Audio category under the Other sub category. I was told it was miscategorized. It’s an audio CD, right? Where else would I put it? Since the product is an audio CD, it needed to be shipped to the Buyer, but I didn’t have that option available. So, I had to move it to other categories until I found one that allowed me to require shipping.

As I created the gig, I realized it would need to be tweaked here and there. Unfortunately, almost every little modification was held pending approval. Then last night I thought I had exactly what was required for final approval. This morning I received a message it was kicked back to me again for modification, this time because the reviewer determined the product did not need shipping! This riled me, and by this time I was convinced either the review team didn’t actually review the gig and just arbitrarily rejected it for a “pick a random reason here”, or they are completely clueless about what they review. It’s an audio CD, a physical item. Of course it requires shipping!

I noted this in the little pop-up box in the corner asking for feedback, and soon the gig was approved, but without the shipping option! Apparently they removed it for me.

I told my son what happened, and he was stunned. He just signed up with Fiverr to try and offer some voice work services, and after hearing this, he was having second thoughts.

Later, I logged back into Fiverr and found the shipping option was back. However, I could not test it on the front end, because I couldn’t access the gig as a Buyer with the URL. I had to open a different browser without logging onto the platform and use the URL to find it because it didn’t show up in the designated category and sub-category, even under New.

When I did located it, I attempted to test the page to be sure everything was correct. Yes, the shipping option was there, but it provided options for both US and International shipping, and International Shipping was free! When I set up the shipping, there was no option for US only. I had to set a price for US shipping and one for International Shipping. I had set International Shipping to None, thinking that surely it would flag the system not to offer International Shipping, as I could not find any other way to turn International Shipping off. No, it doesn’t do that. It offers it free.

I had to go back and set an International Shipping rate and hope no one ordered outside the US. I don’t ship internationally. However, Fiverr doesn’t give me the option to ship only within my own country. If I receive an international order, I am going to have to politely decline it and explain to the Buyer that Fiverr is telling them I ship internationally, when I stated in the description that I ship to the continental US only. This is unacceptable.

I did a lot of research before and after I joined Fiverr last week, and in spite of all the negative reviews and horror stories from sellers online across the web, I would like to use Fiverr to sell various services, but after this first experience, I’m not feeling confident about it. I am going to check out other platforms and compare them, but in the end I may just be better off promoting my services on my own web site instead.

Perhaps this was just an anomaly, and I am sure there are many sellers who have no issues with Fiverr at all, and that’s great, but goodness, there must be a better way to do this, especially when the return is only five dollars, minus 20%.

You need to say in your gig description that the shipping cost is extra and not included in the $5 price.
You only get $4 out of this so that’s a good way to lose money— 10 CDs in sleeves, mailed out and you get paid $4? You may want to rethink that.

Actually, the shipping charge option was mysteriously added back to the gig as I mentioned above, so they do pay shipping at checkout.

I thought buyers would be able to figure that out when they saw the shipping charge field when ordering the gig, but after reading other forum threads apparently they don’t pay attention to such details.

It does add the shipping charge, so I shouldn’t lose the money, unless Fiverr keeps it all. I did notice that they tack on 20% to the shipping charge, so my $3.40 shipping charge is $4.
I added the line you suggested to the description just now, just in case someone complained about the shipping charge. Unfortunately, after I made the change it went back into moderation, and I have read that approval is somewhat arbitrary. If it doesn’t get approved again, I’m done with this. It’s not worth the time and effort to keep messing around with one gig post for a measly $5.

The issue right now is I don’t have an option to choose US shipping only. It’s either international shipping or nothing. I don’t ship internationally. If there is a way to turn off the International Shipping, I haven’t found it.